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March 28, 2018

As mentioned last week, I got my hands on the latest version of OOTP. And like I did last year, I started simulating the current season, by naming myself as Red Sox manager. While last year I played the season slowly, starting around Opening Day and finishing during the playoffs, this time I wanted to run through it quickly, in the week I had between getting the game and Opening Day.

The season started great. By April 20th I firmly had the Yankees in the rear view mirror, already having a 5 and a 6 game win streak. This was largely fueled by Mookie Betts who was on absolute fire, winning April’s player of the month award. And then it happened!

March 22, 2018

Yes, I know it's still one week until Opening Day, but OOTP has released its latest version of Out of the Park Baseball, and I've got my hands on it! I'll be playing it soon and write a review shortly, but for now, here is a copy of their official press release.

Also, on March 28 at 7 PM Eastern time, MLB Network will feature the results of a 2018 season & playoffs simulation conducted in OOTP 19. Last year, OOTP 18 (as well as some random Canadian Red Sox blogger) correctly predicted that the Houston Astros would win the World Series.

If you want to get your hands on a copy of this, you can get it here. Save 10% for the next 7 days. If you're still unsure, check out the trailer below:

Out of the Park Developments,
an official licensee of MLB.com, the Major League Baseball
Players Association, and MiLB.com, announced
today that Out of the Park Baseball 19 is
available worldwide, ahead of the start of the 2018
Major League Baseball season on March 29.

OOTP 19 offers dozens of exciting
new features and deep improvements to its award-winning gameplay including a
dramatic 3D in-game engine that shows players pitching, hitting, fielding, and
running the bases. Images of the new in-game engine
can be found in the screenshot bundle and in the trailer.

Out of the Park Baseball 19 includes:

New 3D stadiums and 3D player models
with improved on-field movements, including running, sliding, jumping, and
throwing.

New in-game screen design for an
optimized virtual dugout.

2018 roster sets with all Opening Day
MLB rosters, as well as the complete minor league system from
Triple-A to rookie leagues and the Arizona Fall League. All Major
League (and over a thousand minor league) player ratings will be based on the popular
ZiPS player projection system. The 8 international leagues, as well
as independent minor leagues in the US, also return this year with
accurate rosters.

Rewritten scouting reports that give
a more detailed and realistic look at players.

New tournament modes! Create a
stand-alone tournament bracket and draw any teams in history into it. The possibilities
are endless!

Ultra-realistic AI roster management
and in-game decisions.

A reworked ratings module.

User voting for end-of-season awards.

Many more improvements, including:

Redesigned interface, with the ability
to choose between 6 different fonts

800 custom team logos for fictional
leagues

Improved Manager Home screen, with a
more customizable layout and new widget options

A new stat -- RA9-WAR (WAR based on
runs allowed) -- for pitchers

Delayed substitutions for injured
players

And much more!

This summer, Out of the Park Developments
will unveil an exciting new online mode called PERFECT TEAM. An
open Beta will happen this spring, and the company will announce more
information soon.

Customers can purchase OOTP 19 for
$39.99 from OOTP Developments through this link:

OOTP 19 runs on PC/Mac/Linux and like
last year it features the American League and National League
logos, the World Series trophy, official logos and jerseys for all 30
MLB teams, over 150 Minor League Baseball league and team logos, and historical
MLB logos.

On March 28 at 7
PM Eastern time, MLB Network will feature the results of the 2018
season + playoffs simulation conducted in OOTP 19. Last year, the game
predicted that the Houston Astros would win the World
Series. Will it make the right call again?

A look back at OOTP 18

2017 was a record-setting year
for Out of the Park Developments, which boasted more
than 120,000 players of OOTP 18 around the world.
More than 3.5 million hours of the game were played on Steam,
which equals 405 years. A record peak of 1,147 concurrent players was
set on Nov. 9 on Steam, and South Korea is now number two in total
sales, surpassing Canada.

The most-accomplished
achievement in OOTP 18 was a five-game team winning
streak and the three rarest achievements were a player hitting 4 home
runs in a game (accomplished by 0.4% of users), a pitcher tossing a
perfect game (0.5%), and a hitter having 10 or more RBI in a game (0.6%).

Quotes from OOTP Developments executives

“After nearly 20 years of development, we’re still finding ways to make Out of the Park Baseball even better,” said lead developer, lifelong baseball fan, and Out of the Park Developments CEO Markus Heinsohn. “We can’t wait for our fans to see what we have in store this year.”

“Out of the Park Baseball
is unique. Its high quality, delivered over two decades, has created
generations of loyal fans who recognize it as the gold standard of sports
strategy games,” saidOut of the Park Developments CMO
Richard Grisham. “Out of the Park Baseball 19 is
our best version yet, purpose-built for those fans. We couldn’t be more excited
for it.”

About Out of the Park Developments

Out of the Park Developments
is the developer of the award-winning OOTP and MLB
Manager series of baseball management simulations, Franchise
Hockey Manager, and Beyond theSideline Football.
German-based OOTP Developments was founded by Markus
Heinsohn and Andreas Raht in 1999. OOTP Developments has consistently
produced games that have met with critical acclaim, including winning
Metacritic's coveted “PC Game of the Year” for the 2016
version of OOTP and "Game of the Year"
for the 2007 edition of OOTP, which remains thesecond
highest-rated PC game on Metacritic of all time. Further information
on the company and its games is available from the OOTP Developments
website,http://www.ootpdevelopments.com

Established in June 2000 following a
unanimous vote by the 30 Major League Baseball club owners to
centralize all of Baseball’s Internet operations, MLB Advanced Media
LP (MLBAM) isthe interactive media and internet company of Major
League Baseball. MLBAM manages the official league site, MLB.com,and
each of the 30 individual Club sites to create the most
comprehensive Major League Baseball resource on the Internet. MLB.com offers
fans the most complete baseball information and interactivity across
computers and mobile devices, including up-to-date statistics, game previews
and summaries, extensive historical information, online ticket sales, baseball
merchandise, authenticated memorabilia and collectibles, fantasy games, live
full-game video streaming and in-progress and on-demand highlights, live and
archived audio broadcasts, Gameday pitch-by-pitch application, Statcast
tracking technology, around-the-clock hosted and specialty video programming,
complete blogging capabilities, console and mobile video games and the award-winning
At Bat and Ballpark mobile applications. MLBAM powers more live events
across the Internet than any other company in the world.

Major League Baseball Players
Association

The Major League Baseball Players Association (www.mlbplayers.com) is the collectivebargaining
representative for all professional baseball players of the thirty
Major Leaguebaseball teams and serves as the exclusive group licensing
agent for commercial and licensingactivities involving active Major
League baseball players. On behalf of its members, it operatesthe Players
Choice licensing program and Players Choice Awards, which benefit the needythrough the Major
League Baseball Players Trust, a charitable foundation established and runentirely by Major
League baseball players. In 2017, the MLBPA launched Infield Chatter,
aninnovative social
media app created by the Players for the fans and available
in the App Storeand Google Play. Follow: @MLB_Players;
@MLBPAClubhouse; @MLBPlayersTrust.;@InfieldChatter

March 07, 2018

Time for the annual Playing Pepper preview hosted at the Cardinals C70 website, which previews every team. I was again one of the writers asked to answer some questions on the Red Sox. Below are the questions and answers, which are now also up on the C70 blog. Check there daily for previews of the other MLB teams.

1. What are your thoughts on the offseason? Did the club improve over the winter?
Until the middle of February, saying it was a slow off-season would have been an overstatement. Other than signing Mitch Moreland (who was our regular 1st baseman last year, so not much of a change there), the only other announcement was with someone named Sam Adams – who I doubt could hit a major league fastball. Anyhow, once spring training got rolling, the Red Sox made some moves that have undoubtedly improved the team. First of all they signed Eddie Nunez, who will presumably fill in for Dustin Pedroia until his activation from the DL, and then will be a super-sub utility player. And then they finally signed JD Martinez – like everyone had been waiting for since November – to be a middle of the order power bat/ DH / 4th outfielder. The Red Sox were sorely lacking in the power department last season, so this was the main area of improvement they needed, and they accomplished that with the best player they could acquire without a trade.